Forming mechanisms based simulation and prediction of grinding surface roughness for abrasive belt rail grinding

Abstract

Abstract Abrasive belt rail grinding (ABRG) was recently applied to repair the contour of the rail and eliminate the surface damage of the rail. Besides, it is desirable to not only suppress the occurrence of new damage but also to improve driving comfort and reduce wheel-rail wear. The surface roughness of the rail directly affects the contact noise, vibration, friction, and wear of the wheel-rail. However, due to the complicated contact state in belt grinding, the surface roughness forming mechanisms are still unclear. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influence of ABRG on surface roughness and to obtain a prediction method for roughness. In this paper, the initial morphology of the abrasive belt was created by using 2D digital filtering technology. The discretization method was used to simplify the entire belt grinding process into several local surface grinding processes carrying different contact pressure. The grinding depth of the abrasive particles on the local abrasive belt at various times was calculated, and the envelope of the cutting edge was induced according to the grinding depth of the effective abrasive grits. The roughness simulation of ABRG based on the forming mechanism was realized, and the 2D roughness of the processed surface was investigated. The good consistency between simulation and experimental results successfully proved the validity of the proposed method, and they both show that the contact force has a significant positive correlation to both Ra and Rsm.